The use of intracorporal medical devices, such as intravascular catheters, guidewires, or the like, has become an effective method for treating many types of disease. For example, in some treatments, an intracopreal device is inserted into the anatomy, such as the vascular system, of the patient and navigated to a desired target site, and can be used in treating the target site. Using this method, many target sites in the patient's anatomy can be accessed, including the coronary, cerebral, and peripheral vasculature. Examples of therapeutic purposes for intravascular devices include percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA).
Many medical devices, such as catheters, include a reinforcing structure, such as a braid, or the like, disposed within the catheter shaft. It is also generally known to provide a polymer tip member, sometimes made of a soft and/or flexible polymer, at the distal end of the catheter shaft. However, the use of a braid in combination with a soft tip material can sometimes be problematic. For example, if the end of the braid is disposed within the soft and/or flexible polymer material, the ends of the braid filaments may flair and/or migrate within the polymer material—in some cases flaring either inwardly and/or outwardly through the surface of the polymer material. As can be appreciated, such fairing can be undesirable.
The prior art offers a number of different structures and mechanisms for providing braids for medical devices. Each of these different structures and mechanisms has certain advantages and disadvantages. However, there is an ongoing need to provide alternative structures and mechanisms for medical devices, and in some cases, designs and/or methods that may aid to reduce and/or prevent the fairing of braids within such devices.